Tale of a ‘Takla’

One fine winter morning, Omi woke up from sleep and saw the first 'Takla' text of his life, which promptly ruined his mood.

Now, a few things need to be clarified first. Considering it was a winter morning and as a 17 year old, Omi considered 11 am as the perfect time to wake up. Another fact was, Omi had a plan to hang out with friends at 10 am, which he obviously missed. What is a 'Takla' text, you might ask? Well, it's best to show you.

The text said, "Today I am invitation you to eat my house but you did not coming! I die three chicken and only three boy and five girl frans to eat but you miss!"

Omi, with his sleepy brain, wanted to throw away the phone and then cry. What is this language? Unable to understand, Omi decided to consult another friend. He called up his friend Agun (who was still asleep at 11:30 am and was grousing about Omi ruining his beauty sleep).

Agun arrived at Omi's place, took one look at the text and laughed like a maniac. "Welcome to the world of 'Takla', my friend."

Agun promptly took out his own phone and started showing some screenshots to Omi. One of them was a screenshot of a WhatsApp chat that said 'Gdn8 frnd'. Another one was the photo of a bike's speedometer with the words added 'My baist ispeet'. Another was a text from one of Agun's cousin, saying, "I mice you baia!". There were also some people who seemed to have tried writing Bangla using English fonts, resulting in comically horrific mishaps.

After looking at all these, Omi had to drink a big bottle of water and lie down. After a while, he felt mentally sound again.

"Agun," he said. "Who are these people? Why do you keep calling them 'Takla'?"

Agun leaned back on the sofa and sat comfortably. "Listen here, young padawan. Even though there are Bangla keyboards available on both PC and mobile phones, some people insist on writing Bangla using English fonts. One of them wrote 'Murad Takla Gukti Dia Kata Bal', meaning if you have the guts then speak sensibly. He massacred his words so badly that now whenever someone types ridiculously wrong things like these, we call them Takla. Got that?"

Omi noded, looking dazed. "This has been a very enlightening morning," he said to Agun. Just as he said this, Omi remembered something horrific and his face went white. He remembered a text from his father, last week. He opened it on his phone.

The text said, "Omitomaketakapataccisomossaniaso".

 "Oh no, he said feebly. "I have a 'Takla' in my family!"